Changes

Datta (2005) shows that following the collapse of militaristic Boulangism in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Concentrating on two plays and two novels from the period - Victorien Sardou's ''Madame Sans-Gêne'' (1893), Maurice Barrès's ''Les Déracinés'' (1897), Edmond Rostand's ''L'Aiglon'' (1900), and Gyp's ''Napoléonette'' (1913) Datta examines how writers and critics of the Belle Epoque exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends. Reduced to a minor character, the new fictional Napoleon was not a world historical figure but an intimate one fashioned by each individual's needs and consumed as popular entertainment. In their attempts to represent the emperor as a figure of national unity, proponents and detractors of the Third Republic used the legend as a vehicle for exploring anxieties about gender and fears about the processes of democratization that accompanied this new era of mass politics and culture.<ref>Venita Datta, "'L'appel Au Soldat': Visions of the Napoleonic Legend in Popular Culture of the Belle Epoque." ''French Historical Studies'' 2005 28(1): 1-30. Issn: 0016-1071 Fulltext: in Ebsco </ref>

Datta (2005) shows that following the collapse of militaristic Boulangism in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Concentrating on two plays and two novels from the period - Victorien Sardou's ''Madame Sans-Gêne'' (1893), Maurice Barrès's ''Les Déracinés'' (1897), Edmond Rostand's ''L'Aiglon'' (1900), and Gyp's ''Napoléonette'' (1913) Datta examines how writers and critics of the Belle Epoque exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends. Reduced to a minor character, the new fictional Napoleon was not a world historical figure but an intimate one fashioned by each individual's needs and consumed as popular entertainment. In their attempts to represent the emperor as a figure of national unity, proponents and detractors of the Third Republic used the legend as a vehicle for exploring anxieties about gender and fears about the processes of democratization that accompanied this new era of mass politics and culture.<ref>Venita Datta, "'L'appel Au Soldat': Visions of the Napoleonic Legend in Popular Culture of the Belle Epoque." ''French Historical Studies'' 2005 28(1): 1-30. Issn: 0016-1071 Fulltext: in Ebsco </ref>

==Basic further reading==

==Basic further reading==

* Rose, John Holland. ''The Life of Napoleon I: Including New Materials from the British Official Records,'' (2 vol 1903), old but solid scholarship; [http://books.google.com/books?id=7qIfAAAAMAAJ&dq=napoleon+John+Holland+Rose&as_brr=1 online editon vol 1] [http://books.google.com/books?id=DIYfAAAAMAAJ&dq=napoleon+John+Holland+Rose&as_brr=1 online editon vol 2]

* Rose, John Holland. ''The Life of Napoleon I: Including New Materials from the British Official Records,'' (2 vol 1903), old but solid scholarship; [http://books.google.com/books?id=7qIfAAAAMAAJ&dq=napoleon+John+Holland+Rose&as_brr=1 online editon vol 1] [http://books.google.com/books?id=DIYfAAAAMAAJ&dq=napoleon+John+Holland+Rose&as_brr=1 online editon vol 2]

* Thompson, J. M. ''Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall'' (1954), scholarly, well-balanced in topics, but pro-Britain

* Thompson, J. M. ''Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall'' (1954), scholarly, well-balanced in topics, but pro-Britain

==Detailed bibliography==

==Detailed bibliography==

===Major biographies===

===Major biographies===